Jan 20, 2017

Albert Quick Launcher 0.9.0 Released With External Extensions Support

Albert is a quick launcher for Linux inspired by Alfred (Mac). It can be used to run applications, open files, search the web, open bookmarks in your web browser, calculate math expressions, and more.

The application is written in C++ and based on the Qt5 framework, and is desktop environment agnostic, meaning you can use it on any DE you want, be it Unity, Xfce, GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, and so on.

Albert features:

plugins available for running applications, calculate math expressions, open Chrome or Firefox bookmarks, open files, run system commands (shutdown, lock, suspend, etc.), run terminal commands, control VirtualBox and search the web;

the extensions are configurable: you can edit, add or remove web searches, configure which directories and file types the Files plugin should index, etc.;

supports fuzzy search (this is disabled by default and can be enabled individually, per extension);

you can modify the actions taken by pressing the modifier keys;

configurable hotkey, maximum number of proposals, and more;

ships with 35+ themes.

Albert settings

Albert 0.9.0 was released recently, bringing a new "External extensions" plugin that allows running programs and scripts as if they were Albert extensions. An example of such an extension for GoldenDict can be found in the Albert 0.9.0 release announcement. For writing and using external extensions, see the Albert documentation.

Another change in the latest Albert is a new Firefox bookmarks extension, which lets you search (and open) through Firefox bookmarks via Albert. From the extension preferences you can select the Firefox profile Albert should use, enable fuzzy search and choose if the bookmarks should open in your default web browser or Firefox:

The VirtualBox extension was updated as well, receiving options to control the state of the virtual machine (besides running it, you can now pause, stop, save, etc.). Note that this extension doesn't seem to work with VirtualBox downloaded from Oracle's website (or at least that was the case in my test).

To use Albert, simply assign it a hotkey in its settings (something like Ctrl + Space - make sure it's not already in use), then use the hotkey to invoke Albert. Note that Albert doesn't start automatically when you log in, so you'll have to add it to your startup applications manually.

Install Albert in Ubuntu or Linux Mint via PPA

To install the latest Albert in Ubuntu 16.10, 16.04 or 14.04 / Linux Mint 18 or 17, use the following commands: